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Abstract #151844

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Nicole C. Williams, Department of Preventative Medicine, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Box 43, Brooklyn, NY 11203, (718) 270-2759, nicole.williams@downstate.edu and Michael A. Joseph, PhD, MPH, Master of Public Health Program, SUNY Downstate Medical Center at Brooklyn, 450 Clarkson Ave, Box 43, Brooklyn, NY 11203.

Health workers risk exposure to a variety of bloodborne pathogens, including Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS. This study examined the effectiveness of a health education training session on safe laboratory practices to eliminate or minimize employee exposure to bloodborne pathogens. Health workers (n = 185) at The Public Health Laboratory of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene attended a 60-minute interactive training session conducted at the workplace that provided information on bloodborne pathogen exposures and transmissions, establishing a safe work environment, and barriers to safe work practices. The training session provided factual information to participants regarding the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, handouts, games and exercises. A pre-post survey design was used to assess changes in workers' knowledge before and after training. Scores improved significantly(p < 0.001 in paired t-test) from pre-training (71%) to post-training (94%). While our results demonstrate that the training curriculum achieved desired goals for improved knowledge, routine training sessions and/or evaluations are warranted to maintain knowledge over time.

Learning Objectives:

• To describe the development of a training curriculum on safe work practices to reduce exposure to bloodborne pathogens among health workers;
• To evaluate the effectiveness of an on-site health education training session to reduce exposure to bloodborne pathogens; and
• To assess the need to develop routine training sessions at the workplace to ensure knowledge is maintained over time.

Keywords: Occupational Health,

Related Web page: www.osha.gov/SLTC/bloodbornepathogens/index.html

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

• Slides (pdf) or Handout
• Multimedia recording